Just some movie stuff this week...

The Last Samurai
What a picture. Three words to describe it - fan-fucking-tastic. It has all the great elements of an epic picture - strong hero who must overcome great odds, a sweeping story of war, love and triumph, and honest-to-god heartfelt emotion woven throughout the tale. Acting is fantastic all around - Tom Cruise is so good you actually forget you're watching Tom Cruise, while Ken Wantanabe (the general, whose character's name escapes me at the moment) and Taka (the slain samurai's wife, whose actress's name escapes me at the moment) are superb in giving their characters a depth that truly lies beyond what words could relay. Edward Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall) was a perfect choice to direct this tale of a jaded alcoholic Civil/Indian Wars veteran paid to train the Imperial Army in modern warfare turned into cross-cultural Samurai warrior. His suburb handling of exceptionally savage fight scenes (and some of the best - if not THE best - swordfights committed to film) is balanced by a sublime delicacy of the story of Algren's relationship with the family of the Samurai who he has slain, and the intense emotion just behind the restrained exteriors of Taka and the great Samurai general. The result is a samurai film that rivals the greatest films of Akira Kurasowa in their depiction not only of the warriors and battles of Japan, but of the culture of restraint and discipline challenged by emotion that is so rarely understood or depicted in Western cinema. Go see it. Now.

The Two Towers Extended Edition
I got this the week it came out, but forgot to write something up about it so...It's good. The extended scenes add quite a bit to the film, particularly in bringing the movie back in line with the book (or at least, more directly in line with the book). Faramir gets the treatment he deserves; Merry and Pippin visit Treebeard's house; we see a little more of the happenings in Rohan before Aragon and crew arrive; and we see Gollum's dark side a bit earlier in the film. There's only a single new scene I wouldn't have added, as I really liked where the theatrical version left us in our perception of Gollum, but it's a minor quibble.

My friends are pretty chatty when watching flicks, but this one hits my quote of the month meter:

"Dude, Treebeard having a pipe would be like one of us smoking a monkey."

Classic.

Doing Time
Hey lords and ladies,

Well, I've been flattened with a nasty upper-respitory infection this week I caught, of all days, on Thanksgiving horsing around with my folks' adorable neighbor girls (2.5 and 4.5, natch), so I thought I should give the ol' blog some attention. Lessee what's going on...

Most Wanted is Out!!!
Shazam! It really did happen! And it seems like people are actually liking it (which is a relief to me, with all the hype I've been building around it), so that's a plus. Good news is the initial order of the book has sold out already, so we're in line to sell out the run. Plus Will likes it, which means a lot to me. See what people are saying about it here. Comment on the book if you like in the comments below this post.

If you've never been lucky enough to hold a book that you put together yourself in your hands, I have to tell you - it's a damn good feeling. For about 5 minutes. Then the little perfectionist inside you starts to see the little errors you made in editing after a 16-hour marathon editing session on Easter Sunday, the culmination of over 60 hours of writing in just 4 days...but, then you look down and see your book. Your book. And it's OK for another 5 minutes or so.

Speaking of books and Will, Smuggler's Run has allegedly been released, as well. If you like Dragonstar - or Star Wars for that matter...or even space opera gaming - you could probably do worse than picking up this book. FFG always does good books and Will always does good work. So there.

Project X News
Well, I think everything has been hammered out between the publisher and I for the initial contract negotiations, so now we are in the infamous 'wait and see' stage - waiting on AEG's approval for the licence, waiting on the goddamned US Patent and Trademark Office to fix the hang up in their own ranks with clearing the trademark, waiting for the beginning of next year to start the project...t'aint easy. Not that I'm wont for something to do; I've got to incorporate, talk to the state about a business license, lining up a graphic artist to develop graphic identity for the Ascent Studios imprint, reviewing and planning the work so we can start again. This is my first book as a line developer and head honcho, so I'm in pre-production mode, which is a more official way of saying I'm watching all sorts of related films, reading similar books, examining the competition and taking lots of notes. I'm also working frantically to get some of the Spycraft illuminati involved with the project as well - chances are you are going to see some familiar names in the credits page...

While I'm thinking of it, I wanted to tell you that the nature of this blog will be changing slightly as I get into full Project X prodution early next year. I'm planning on using the blog as a diary/log of the fevered working of my mind and chronicle of the project, from cradle to grave. I can't promise it won't be cryptic; I can't promise it will be cogent; but I can say it will be here. So much to do, so much to do.

Spycraft News
I've finished up the anguish that was the Agency and to be honest, I'm pretty happy with the final result. It's going to be a book that I think will change the way people look at and play Spycraft in some ways, which is a good thing. Mastermind looms in the not-too-far-off distance, so it looks like another mad rush to beat the holidays before the fun begins [for the 3 of you who read this blog and are not my personal friends, I have a ragin' New Year's Party every year that friends fly cross-country to attend and drink and game and have a grand old time. It's my one holiday tradition and a fab one at that].

Spycraft Game Dragging? Check Out This Material
I've stumbled across quite a few cool bits of inspiration for slacking Spycraft or SFA games recently that I thought I'd share....

* The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. This book is great for SFA fans, or Spycraft games that like to play with religious intrigue or semi-mystical elements like secret societies. The premise this - a world-famous symbologist teams up with a forensic cryptologist to unravel the mystery around the murder of the cryptolgist's grandfather, a member of a secret society that protects an ancient secret suppresed and hunted by a splinter faction of the Roman Catholic Church. Set in Paris and other old-world European locations, this is an easy and engaging read that screams at you to dust off your copy of European Commonwealth and try something different for a change. If you want some rules for the Churchy types, you can find them in the Spycraft forums....

* Gunslinger Girl is an anime show based on a popular manga, in which young girls are trained by a "child welfare" group to be elite killers. While the premise is nothing new in the world of Japanese pop culture, the execution is strong - guns are realistic, relationships complex, and the girls themselves (many the products of broken homes or abuse) are 'damaged goods' whose killer instincts can get the best of them. You can get this series for free as fansubbed anime using the BitTorrent client - all legal, as these are recorded from TV overseas. If you dig shows like Ghost in the Shell or Noir, give it a shot. Check out em out here.

Fun Stuff
I've not been doing too much gaming lately (little surprise), with Warmachine taking most of what little time I have. My buddies and I pooled some cash a few weeks ago and bought (to my horror) some Marvel Heroclix, which, to my amazement, is a lot of fun. As a recovered comics fanatic, the game brings back happy memories of days when I could get a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man for 75 cents at the local Plaid Pantry, drawn by Todd McFarlane, and when collecting comics was still a social stigma (that is, before the hipsters made it cool, and Hate and Madman were still a far-off notion). Ah, memories of an ostracized nerd.

As a Christmas gift for one of my best friends who's flying out to my NY party, I'm giving the gift of gaming. I'm constructing a Midnight mini-campaign to be run late in the evening for 3 consecutive days. With Return of the King on the horizon and Evan being a huge LotR fan, I think a well crafted epic fantasy game with a beginning, middle and end would be a great gift.

If you're a video game fan, I would also recommend Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. This game is exceptionally silly, and not terribly original in it's core mechanics (it's a sprite-based, isometric panel-based tactical strategy game, along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre), the changes Atlus has made to the turn order and character creation is awesome and opens up whole new venues of tactics. I won't get into the minutae, but if you liked FFT, you'll like this one a lot - crazy manga-type story and all.

Well, I've got to be off to bed. I'll try to post again soon.